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I've received some private messages recently from concerned users about a few users that create threads with the apparent motive of stirring up arguments. By and large, the majority of BLF users are friendly, easygoing folks, and I'd like to use this opportunity to personally thank each and every one of them for being that way. But every once in a while somebody comes around with a rude or provocative post. I'd like to re-post the instructions on how to deal with such situations to avoid an unpleasant, counterproductive argument that gets everyone riled up.

Thanks for reading!

Bumps and/or brief comments on this thread would be appreciated to keep it in the recent posts list for a day or two.

sb56637 wrote:

Hi everyone,

From time to time, a few rogue users find their way to BLF. They are not the typical users here who are generally friendly and helpful but from time to time have a bad day. Rather, they are malicious people who come to the forum with the sole intent of causing trouble. In Internet lingo, they are known as "trolls". So, how to handle trolls? Two simple points:

Please do NOT respond to them in any way, either publicly or by private message.

It's that simple. Trolls do what they do because they are immature and like to get a reaction out of people. They will never change their ways if somebody with good intentions tries to counsel them. And they will get even worse if other users fight with them or insult them back. So, please try to use self control, and do not respond in any way, shape, or form.

Additionally, I will no longer make public posts about the banning of trolls, because even such negative publicity is enough to encourage them to try harder. But rest assured, the banning of trolls only occurs in rare and extreme cases, and there will be not be a sudden rash of secretive bans happening here on BLF.

I’d kind of prefer not to cite any specific cases, to avoid getting people riled up again. But in general, if a discussion gets heated and is centering on a person rather than a flashlight, it’s probably a troll thread.

But each user and each post is different. I try to handle things on a case-by-case basis, with the goal of keeping the peace and minimizing the usage of bans and disciplinary action. So it definitely makes life easier for me when I receive a PM about a single rude or trolling post, instead of a PM about an entire thread that has turned into a war zone. As long as nobody responds in public to the rudeness/trolling, I can usually step in on time to minimize the damage.

This is a very nice move.
I suggest to remove the ‘troll’ posts as deemed by you and allow the serious ones to remain. That can serve as a reminder to a troll that his post will never survive the light of day each time, and perhaps serve as a continual warning to stop such posts. Some might not like me to say this, but this type of action works in the ‘other’ side.

What I sometimes do when a troll has caused trouble in a thread is to lock it and hide all but the first post. But that’s not necessarily to say that the first poster caused the trouble, but rather that somewhere in the thread an argument has erupted and I haven’t had time yet to dig through the details of how it all started.

I would ask all creators of new posts to make their subject line(s) as meaningful as possible. Me annoy subjects such as “flashlight” or “Help me with my mod” ect. If I want that I get as many answers as possible, one should be somewhat accurate, what it is about.